Quest for the magnificent light

Finally there are enough photos to present the next review in this series. I already wrote a quick post about the lens right after it arrived. It has became my favourite prime since then. That's not a suprise, as 50mm focal length is considered to be the standard for 35mm system. Let's start with a few images of the lens itself.   Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 ZE front   Markings on the front show the usual data including serial number, focal length and speed. Of course big, white "Carl Zeiss" and "Planar" text, moreover the famous red T*  are also there to always remind you what you are shooting. ;-)   Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 ZE with lens hood  "Lens made in Japan" - Cosina, Zeiss' manufacturing partner, really knows how to build great lenses! The Planar is made of metal including the mount and filter ring as well. Although I love vintage lenses, none of them is as well made as this one. (Including Conta...

It's time to write about one of my favourite screw mount lens, the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm F3.5 MC . First some words about the exterior. The lens is painted in black with white and red markings. It looks professional, and the colors nicely match Canon bodies as well. I showcase the lens here on a "retro" Praktica film body.     The front element   Side view   When you pick up the lens, you immediately realize that the build quality is good; it is made of lot of metal parts and some plastic. I heard that the internal contains more plastic in my late, red MC version; but its weight still shows that there is good old glass inside. :) Weakest point seems to be the aperture mechanism, but fortunately mine is pretty well-preserved, and don't have any mechanical problems. Aperture can be set between F3.5 - F22. There is a depth of field scale, as you can expect.   DOF scale  The lens has only...

First post of this series is about the brilliant Jupiter 9 (85mm F2). The lens has a pretty long history! In fact it is a direct copy of an earlier Zeiss design, which was acquired by the soviets after WWII. At first it was available for Zorki and Kiev rangefinder cameras, but later it was added in M42 mount to the Zenith line. My copy is a multicoated (MC) one, which is pretty commonly available where I live. You can find more pieces of the story here . Let's see the lens! Jupiter 9 front  Jupiter 9 front It is a classic preset lens, which means that aperture must be selected, and then set. The aperture values shown on the picture above can be directly selected, but the aperture is stepless. It is sometimes called as the "bokehmonster" , because it has 15 blades! Jupiter 9 side Minimum focusing distance is 0.8m, which is not suprising knowing that it is basically the evolution of a rangefinder lens.  Made by ...